July 22: Warhammer Online Q&A at GameFaction

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By IGN Staff

GameFaction has posted an interview with two members of the Warhammer Online development team, Robin Dews and Matt Sansam. This is an excerpt from Matt's lengthy description of the game's magic system:

Spells themselves require a set amount of magical energy to cast and any specific spell will always cost the same amount of power, whether a novice or a master is casting it. The difference comes in the amount of time a spell caster takes to actually cast that spell. Let me give you an example. If a fireball spell requires 100 power to cast and a novice wizard can channel and focus 1 point of power per second, it's going to take him 100 seconds to cast. If a master wizard can channel 10 points of power per second then that same spell will only take him 10 seconds to cast it.

However channeling this power has it's price. Spell casters take damage every second the magical energies are passing through them. Going back to my previous example the novice wizard is going to get badly hurt casting that fireball spell as it takes him a long time to focus the energy. The master wizard probably won't even think twice, although casting that fireball over and over again is really going to take it out of him. This also means that there's nothing stopping a novice wizard from trying to cast a very powerful spell, as long as he can find some way to survive the experience.

Robin serves as General Manager for the team, while Matt is the Executive Producer. Warhammer Online is being developed by Climax and Games Workshop. - Pipeline